Save 30 - Dungeon Secret

I was being beaten. A huge gorilla was punching me while I was trying to cover myself. My guard was easily broken as his fists hurt so much. Really, they hurt. Damn, it hurts with a demon. My chin was hit by his fist and my head was thrown back. It was there, where my consciousness shut down and I had that dream again.

◇

I was on my way to see my cousin at her high school. The reason was that I wished to go out with her for a walk.

It may seem very strange, but the reason is that, for a while now, she hasn't responded to the messages I sent her and it made me think that school has her very stressed.

That's why I want to see her and take her out for some fun at the arcade and ice cream.

As a good relative and almost brother to her, it's my job to make her a little happy.

After a while of walking I stopped near a bridge, voices could be heard, they were from kids.

As a responsible adult, I would hate to see them throw away their youth in vice.

I crept closer to catch them in the act. It was there that I overheard their conversation.

"Hey, have you made sure that girl's parents aren't around yet?"

"Yeah, those old guys go out every day to work, they seem to have economic problems."

"Hahaha, it must be pathetic that in these times of great economic income there are still poor people."

"Yeah, more importantly, when are we going to do that?"

"Umm... I think, tomorrow."

"Okay, tomorrow we'll make a lot of money from selling your videos, hahaha."

"It's good that pathetic girls like her exist. That way, future investors like us can make money off of them."

What the hell are these guys talking about?

I moved closer to see what they were talking so much about.

As I moved my face closer without them noticing, that's when I saw something horrifying.

One of the guys had his smartphone with a gallery of naked young women, all tied up or asleep.

And, on another cell phone, he had my cousin's picture secretly taken from the girls' bathroom.

If what I heard is correct, these animal-boys were planning to do horrible things to my cousin as well as to those girls.

So, this is personal...

◇

When I opened my eyes, it was already dark.

I don't remember what happened, I just know that my mouth hurts a lot.

I feel an itching in many parts of my body, plus a colossal burning.

My legs hurt a lot, my arms are tired and my mouth tastes like iron.

Looking around, I notice that I am still under the bridge, what am I doing here?

I staggered a few steps and my foot hit something. It was very big and it made a sound.

I took my cell phone out of my pants, the screen was cracked, but I didn't care.

With horror, I watched as one of the guys who were planning to do something to my cousin was on the floor with his disfigured face full of blood.

His teeth were scattered all around. As I stepped back, the light focused on another student. He had a board shoved up his ass, turning further back I found one near the wall with several bruises on his almost disfigured face.

I ran out of there.

I panicked as there was no one there but me and them, there is only one answer. I did it myself, such a thing is terrifying being a person who follows the norms of society.

I feared for days that the police would come to my apartment to take me to headquarters or worse.

But it seems there were no cameras and since it was very dark in that area, nothing happened to me by miracle.

Once, Ixion asked me why I didn't dare to kill the pirates, even though it was the most normal thing to do.

That's it, that very word is it.

Why didn't I do it?

The answer is simple; I am someone who gets carried away by his anger to a very frightening level, I remember the sensation of what I felt when I suddenly threw myself on the guys and hit them while they also hit me. It wasn't a feeling of pain, it was something else, one that just made me want to hit them to the point of killing them even more.

Normal people in society don't beat others half to death. That's not what responsible adults do.

But me, I'm a horrible person.

I don't care if they die or not, I care more if I will become some kind of monster if I get to kill someone.

I liked the feeling of violence, I'm afraid that desire will possess me one day.

I told Ixion about it and he said "nonsense," as he flew away.

I know death better than anyone, I don't want to go through it until I'm an old man. I don't want to feel the cold embrace of his bony body again.

That's why I don't want to take lives... but, who is in front of me, is something else.

I see my cousin crying.

"Why are you crying?" I said to her and, behind her.

There was him, that man, that bloodthirsty bastard laughing.

His strange laughter sounded louder and louder as he raised his great sword.

"Stop!" and "Don't you do it!" I yelled as he saw me and laughed like crazy.

"Don't you dareeeee!!!" with all my heart I screamed at him to stop.

The big sword came down on my cousin, my mind disconnected after that.

I heard a voice.

"Master!"

"Who are you? What do you want?" I said to the voice that spoke to me.

At that moment, I could see him, that man, the one who took from me what I wanted most in my past life.

His fist was coming, I used my left arm to deflect it and, my right fist went flying towards his cheek.

He stepped back. A strange shadow was coming towards me.

The shadow was a moving knight. My breathing was quickening as my heart was pumping blood like crazy making my breathing very intense.

I hit him in the head causing him to crash to the ground.

Raising my head, I stared at him, at that man, the bloodthirsty bastard. And I said the following words to him.

"IT WAS ALL YOUR FAULT!!!!"

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!"

◇◇◇

Mandricardo's fist was heading towards Rudel, but he used his right to block it.

Then, he raised his left and landed a hook to the liver.

Yellow liquid poured out of the ape's mouth.

Rudel's breathing was similar to that of a beast, his eyes were bloodshot and his gasp was like that of asthmatic.

"I'll kill you!!!"

Rudel rushed out raising his arms to stand guard, Mandricardo saw him and both arms were raised to throw a punch.

Seeing them approaching, Rudel only turned his body a few inches and fists punched the air.

He was throwing non-stop lefts and rights while Rudel was backing up or throwing lefts and rights.

At one point where the ape's fist lagged. Rudel took advantage and threw a punch to the pancreas. Then to both kidneys.

He wasn't using magic power, so it's just his physical power.

The ape recoiled as yellow liquid yellow mingled with its saliva.

The ape roared.

"Ukikiiiiiii!!!" (Don't think you're the big deal you piece of shit!)

He raised his fists and they were directed towards Rudel, but.

"How slow you are!"

As he shouted, Rudel made a feint, backpedaling backwards while standing in front.

The fist missed him, and so the process was repeated.

Each time the fists came closer, Rudel backed up, dodging them.

Ixion and Erselica watched him, they could not believe the precision of what they see.

But the reason was simple, he was using magic power.

Because of the cruise incident, Rudel learned to distribute magic power and concentrate it in one place.

This was an unimaginable fact since no one had ever used it like this. For a person of minuscule magical power like him, this was a miraculous discovery.

"Take this!"

Rudel shouted as he ducked to avoid a cross swipe from the ape's two arms.

As he stood up, he used his right fist crashing into the ape's jaw.

Everyone could watch as teeth along with yellow liquid came out from the heavy blow.

Without stopping, Rudel launched a non-stop barrage of punches.

The ape's face was full of bruises.

Everything seemed to be over already.

The ape slowly backed away, its jaw hung down and both saliva and yellow liquid fell out.

Erselica felt fear, not for the monster, but for Rudel's silhouette.

"Why am I sorry I saw this before?"

After muttering something, she didn't notice the remaining monsters heading towards her.

Noticing this, everything seemed like its end.

Or not, as Ixion stepped in her way and with a large laser beam he zapped them all.

As he cut them, yellow liquid gushed with intensity.

Ixion resumed his position and watched Rudel fight.

Erselica looked at him from the ground and also felt fear for the floating sphere.

"Really these guys are dangerous!"

"It's over, die!"

Her gaze now focused on Rudel who was running to finish off the staggering ape.

He was only two meters away, one meter now, his fist was heading at high speed to end it all.

It was there where Mandricardo's surrounding eyes, positioned in a normal way and tilted his back backwards.

He managed to dodge the blow, Rudel's left fist missed.

Slowly, as if in slow motion, the ape's head rose to see him.

Its eyes were red and its big, hairy right fist was rising to strike Rudel's face.

It happened, the fist impacted Rudel's left cheek, sinking bit by bit.

Mandricardo's mind screamed with happiness.

(Ukiki! Eat this trash, there is no one stronger than me, there is no-)

Suddenly, Rudel turned his head to the side.

Blood dripped from his teeth, the ape's face was one of unexpected fright.

It was there that the right fist glowed, it was the magic power gathered earlier.

It glowed so brightly that it looked like a balloon.

The fist likewise, slowly advanced impacting the hairy nose.

"It's over for you!"

Rudel shouted as his fist buried itself deeper and deeper into the monster's face.

As if it was a repetition of different points type A, B, C.

Mandricardo went flying crashing into the wall.

It was there that he took one last look at this world before he began to turn to ashes as he fell to the ground.

As if in sync, all the other monsters disappeared as well.

Ixion saw Rudel still exalted and threw a dart at him to numb him.

He inserted a healing potion into his bloodstream. Since he had discovered what they were made of and made his own potions.

◇◇◇

In a large cloud that looked like mist, shadows were assimilated, these shadows grew with each passing second.

The cloud was deformed because it was pierced through, it was a large number of pirate ships, at least 80 ships equal in size to a galleon and on the deck 200 mobile knights could be seen.

On the flagship, which was the largest and in the center of everything, was a man who could be called vice-captain.

He had a letter in his hands, the addressee was the Marquis Balzac. The content was to kill everyone but the Saint. You will be given treasures among other things.

The pirate shouted and his companions rejoiced.

The fleet was heading to where Rudel and company were.

◇◇◇

Rudel and Erselica had been going into that seemingly dangerous area for some time.

Alisa and Airi were worried as Rudel showed no signs of returning, they had the worst of it.

Their worry changed to uneasiness when they overheard Frey and Chlust's conversation.

"Hey, is it okay if we don't do anything!!!?"

"I know, but it's only been a few minutes!"

Thought they thought with those words the worst had happened, then it changed to one of anger at what the boys said.

"We don't know if Bradford can do it!"

"...I hear you, but that man wouldn't be capable of that in these situations."

"How could he not, that man could use any opportunity to try to get his hands on Erselica!"

Alisa came to Rudel's defense followed by Airi.

"Hey, what do you mean by that?"

"Right, what are you talking about Rudel-san?"

Frey turned around and answered them.

"What you heard. I don't trust Bradford not to try to do something improper to Erselica-chan, and even more so now being the lead knight of her bodyguards."

Alisa was annoyed to hear that.

"Why are you talking about Rudel being able to do that to her!!!?"

"It's true!" Airi shouted and then Alisa added.

"He's the kind of shameless man who looks at a woman's breast while talking! Besides, he's not like you guys who's after someone who can almost be the prince's future mate!"

Chlust was the one who answered him.

"And? The prince knows, but he says nothing to us since he sees us as rivals. For the love of a woman a man is capable of anything. Besides, Bradford is also a man. The three of them may be together, but that doesn't mean they know which woman he is interested in. After all, you are only his friends and not his women to speak for him."

Alisa and Airi didn't know how to answer since Chlust was telling the truth, they are just Rudel's friends, their opinion about what kind of woman he is interested in is something that was none of their business.

Alisa wanted to say something, when at that moment they heard the sound of gunshots.

Immediately the foursome sensed that something was wrong, they left the others behind and ran hoping that nothing bad had happened.

◇◇◇

After running a few meters, they found a big deep hole, the idiots were shouting Erselica's name while the girls called Rudel and Ixion to confirm that they were at least safe.

As there was no answer, Chlust went back to get a rope along with Frey.

The girls were left calling out Rudel and Ixion's name, but Erselica's name never passed their mouths.

◇

I was walking with Ixion asking him what happened to me after waking up on the floor.

He told me it was a fit of rage, I felt nervous as that had never happened to me in this world, as I woke up I observed the little pest away from us.

For a second, I seemed to remember something similar from my old life.

It didn't matter anyway, the main thing is to escape from here. Ixion says there is a hidden part of the dungeon that he couldn't scan, he also said he can take us up, but we should check it out first.

We were walking down a long dark corridor that was lit by a spotlight coming from the floating spherical body next to me.

I don't know how long it was, but my feet hurt. Just before I groaned, there it was.

A large steel door covered in roots. I turned around to tell the little pest following us that we reached our target.

She was just hiding in a remote spot.

Ixion told me to look at something interesting. It was a retinal scanner so I could get in.

How do I know that, from watching a lot of movies and games evidently. There's no way I'd know what the hell this was if it wasn't for them.

Ixion used a wire that came out of his body and inserted it to make it glow after a few seconds.

He told me there was an "ally" inside.

I don't understand what he meant. He also gave me a gas mask that was compacted into his spherical body.

How the hell do you defy logic by being scientific?

He said it was a precaution.

He opened the door, and a big cloud of smoke came out.

I went inside to see what this place was, since come to think of it.

Isn't this place what they call the heart of the dungeon?

A super hard place to reach and that there were only rumors about since no one ever made it.

That means I did something else again that I shouldn't have!

I don't want any more older weirdos stalking me.

"Master."

Ixion called out to me since I was in a daze after taking a step.

I told him I was fine and we went inside.

◇

The place was in shambles, well, there was a lot of it floating in the air.

I mean this place is wrecked. Ixion was lighting my way so I wouldn't fall.

He notified me that there is a neighboring room which was opened by a cave-in.

The dust from this room did not pass through there as it was sealed.

Ixion told me to stop as he found a huge monitor the size of a movie screen.

He pulled out a weird USB style cable and inserted it into a slot.

The screen would not turn on as it was broken.

But Ixion said.

"It may be broken, but the information is stored on the hard drives."

He started gathering information, while I snooped around the place with a lamp he handed me, it also came out of his body.

This place is explicitly a research center. There's everything, computers, microscopes, glass containers with mysterious contents inside.

It has everything, even something like giant cylinders grouped together.

That was the most curious thing, I approached them, they were obviously covered with dust.

I wiped them with my hand while Ixion said.

"Master, the lights will turn on to see better."

They turned on, when they did, I panicked and screamed.

Ixion was startled as I fell to the ground; something touched my butt making it hurt more.

After all, what I am seeing is something unimaginable to me.

It's rows of cylinders grouped in several columns.

There are wires coming out of the floor and ceiling, they are connected at the top and bottom base of the cylinder.

Inside, there is a glowing green liquid. The scariest thing is that inside the cylinder I cleaned, there is a creature.

I wiped it further and saw a strange mixture of something that looks like a human and a goat fused together.

I cleaned the one next to it and similar it was, something resembling a man, but with wild boar parts.

Ixion called out to me as it approached me.

"According to reports; what they were doing here was creating reinforcements."

"...Reinforcements?" I said.

"Yes. It seems they were fighting something, and they needed help, so they decided to use clones to protect their research centers."

"...Research centers?"

"How did you hear, there are several similar places hidden under the islands, they use these creatures called 'tereomorphs' to defend them, but it seems that many got out of control and ran away."

"I see... wait, Ixion. You're meaning what I think you're saying..."

"So it seems, the monsters, the magical beasts everyone calls them. They are actually failed experiments that escaped and managed to reproduce and that possibly the dungeons are secret research centers."

This is very scary, what would they do all this for? What were they fighting against to create these and have ended up like this?

Ixion added more stuff, he seems to be super interested.

"According to their DNA samples, they seem to have mixture between humans, animals and some strange liquid found in the underground ago-"

Suddenly, the chattering Ixion dropped. I squeezed awkwardly, before asking him what happened.

He went back to the monitor.

I was puzzled, turned around to look at those things again. And once again I fell down.

"What the hell?" I approached the object that looked like a rusty bell.

In fact, when I picked it up it made the sound of one. But the tone was familiar to a beat of a certain party from my old life.

People said nice things to each other while being hypocritical before that date.

I turned it over and noticed it had something like a big eye.

I waved it around.

"Please don't shake me!"

A mysterious electronic voice with a girlish tone came on.

I panicked.

"Down here!"

I turned my gaze to the mysterious bell, it greeted me, I was scared as it reminded me of a horror movie.

Ixion approached me.

"Master, I've finished gathering everything, I suggest blowing this place up with dynamite as soon as possible!"

I wanted to ask him why, but the curiosity of this thing mattered more.

"Hey, what's this?" I said and he went on to tell me.

"It's the ally I told you about, like me, it's an AI that was assigned to this place. Mind you, he's just a janitor, I'm his superior."

Hey, that was redundant.

"What do we do with her?"

"Her?" Ixion said strangely.

Instead, the AI itself replied.

"I don't possess gender, my voice is like that because the section chief liked having girls around and hated my programmed voice so he programmed me that of a young girl."

I looked at Ixion so I wanted to ask him if it was possible, he looked at me and said.

"What? You didn't expect me to change my voice to a girl just to satisfy you? I'm sorry, I don't possess gender for you to see me in a sexual way, even if I did. Why should you assume that I would like to be your partner? Please, grow up and requested female companionship if your male urges are so great."

I was inches away from hitting him when I heard voices.

"Rudel-san. Where are you?"

"Rudel, are you okay?"

It was the girls' voices, how did they get there? There were idiotic voices with them too.

Ixion asked me again if he could blow this place up since it was dangerous, I said yes and proceeded to place dynamite coming out of his body.

I looked at the AI and said.

"Hey, would you like to go with me? This place will be destroyed."

The AI was surprised and said.

"Really? That means, what will be my new master?"

I replied with a smile "why not". And the bell rejoiced shouting wonderful things about me.

This reminds me a bit of when I met Ixion, this girl must have a long name too. So let's give her a short one.

At that instant it came to me.

Ixion... a bell sound....

This boy is correctly named Ix-ion.

And the sound is similar to a song... bell...

Bell... Ix-ion.

Bell... ion.

"...Bellion!"

I shouted that name and the AI said "what's wrong with him?"

With a smile I replied.

"Your new name will be [Bellion] a pleasure, Bell. I am Rudel van Bradford, your new master."

The AI- Bell, was happy and seemed to want to jump.

He was a very cheerful AI...quite the opposite of that serious, bitter one over there.

He said he was done, but there was a problem turning it on.

Asking him what it was, I was dumbfounded by what I heard.

◇◇◇

The girls and the idiots found Erselica. They were going to ask her if Rudel didn't touch her while they wanted to find out where he was.

Before they could say anything, they all heard a voice.

"Run damn it! Runnnnnnnn!"

Rudel was running like a maniac with two spheres in his hands.

The girls were happy to see him, but everyone's faces grimaced weirdly at the next thing he said.

"What do you mean you overdid it with the dynamite!?"

"...I'm sorry, I admit it's my fault this time."

Everyone heard him, and as Rudel walked past him, an explosion rang out.

It was so loud that debris fell as flames shot through it.

Everyone ran like mad to the direction they came from.

The boys who had the rope with which the four of them came down were gone.

Ixion came out of Rudel's hand grabbing everyone with wires coming out of his body.

Rudel was the last one just to annoy him.

The girls were grabbed by the same cable, unintentionally making their breasts meet and pressed together achieving a breast sandwich.

Rudel saw it, blood came out of his nose as he appeared to be knocked unconscious.

The girls were worried to see him, that they didn't realize Erselica was trapped in the middle of them, her breasts crushing her head and all he could do was.

"Damn cows!!!"

Cursing what was envy and happiness for Rudel as they escaped to the outside.

◇

After returning and getting out safely, I got a report from the annoying James, was that it wasn't it?

"Th-there's a fleet of pirates coming our way!"

Everyone panicked, but Ixion said.

"Leave it to me. And following the master's orders, no one will die."

He said that, but his tone was very macabre.

◇◇◇

The enemy fleet was getting closer and closer to the island. Brunhilde was anchored offshore.

The pirates shouted to fire the cannons, but at that moment something similar to a swarm of wasps appeared from the ship.

But they were not, they were drones that looked like saucers with spinning discs on their four ends to fly.

There was also a turret with machine guns on the bottom.

The pirates only saw strange things flying.

At that moment, a hail of bullets rained down on them.

It destroyed sails, hot air balloons, dirigibles.

All, without killing anyone as they were blanks fired at high speed that only hurt the body.

The captain was screaming as he watched the ships being torn apart by small hard rubber balls.

He was crying as he tried to flee in his mobile cavalryman that was being torn apart by non-lethal bullets.

From the shore, everyone could see the spectacle.

The village chief approached Rudel to thank him and told him that he was a seer, he was going to read his future in gratitude.

A very rare magic in this world that only existed in the lore of the game.

He was going to refuse, but the girls grabbed him and took him to the tent where the village chief indicated that it was the place where the prana was densest.

They proceeded to have their fortunes read, Chlust and Frey were told that they would be bald in their adulthood.

◇

The boys and girls who came in were taken care of.

I escape so the girls had to wait until the end for me.

I don't believe in fortune telling, but they told me if I didn't they would never speak to me again.

So I listened to them even though it was just a bad joke.

Upon re-entering, only the little pest remained, listening to a strange divination.

"If you decide to continue on that path you chose, you will lose everything. Even the one you wish to find. You were given a second chance to find him, but if you wish to continue on what you don't really want, a path of pain and regret you will find."

I'd be really weird about that too, it doesn't even sound like fortune telling, just weird talk.

She got up and walked out upset after seeing me. Ungrateful bitch, save your ass.

I still have to ask her stuff, but I want to hear what she says about girls.

Not before I get this discomfort out of my nose.

"Ummm... that's weird." Said the village headman.

"Is something wrong?" asked Alisa uneasily as Airi sat down before her.

The chief spoke to them with his eyes closed.

"I'm not just seeing hers, I'm seeing yours too."

"Huh?" Said Alisa who also sat down.

"...It seems that their original paths and destinies were different. Now they have crossed in a line which is stronger with the passage of time."

"It's like that!" Airi exclaimed with much interest, they looked at each other seeming to see that their bonds were stronger.

"You, the girl with the red eyes."

"Me? Is something going on with me?" Alisa sounded intrigued.

"Your destiny was a short line that ended before it began, but thanks to a unique existence, is that the horizons of hundreds of possibilities opened up to you."

She then turned to Airi.

"While you." She swallowed as she heard it was her turn now.

"Your destiny was to be with someone else, but the same existence that touched your friend, saved you by entering a new line of possibilities."

What the hell is that about lines?

"Besides, that existence is one that takes a special form."

"Special?" Airi asked intrigued.

"Yes. That existence didn't have a solid appearance, but you seem to have molded it into an ideal of what your hearts long for."

"And that is?" asked Alisa approaching the sphere where the chief was doing his divinations.

"...A hero. A knight of a pure black color it is also. That figure is behind you at all times protecting you."

Hearing that, I wanted to tell him that such a thing was not possible since there was no one like that.

But as I looked up, I noticed that they were looking at me with wet eyes, I was still squeezing out some snot, so I slowly pulled out my finger.

Alisa made a face saying "...no way". While Airi just laughed strangely.

The boss finished by saying "your paths keep changing, but that existence and you will make an important decision one day, that decision will forever mark your lives".

They stood up as they looked at each other, I told them it was time to go as they grabbed my shoulders and forcibly sat me down.

Alisa said "it would be unfair if only you don't know your fate". While Airi "that's right, it's not like we want to know things about you!"

I stood still and told the old man to start.

Come on, tell me what will I win? Money? Women? More normal stuff?

"Uwaaahhh!"

The old man out of nowhere yelled opening his eyes. I freaked out, they did too.

"Demon lord!!!"

"Black body!!!"

"Red eyes!"

"Your destiny is plagued with darkness, pain and death!"

"The demon lord will walk this earth the day you leave!"

What are you saying old man, don't scare me!

"Total darkness is in your life!"

You scared me already, shut up please.

"The devil is stalking you without you knowing it!"

"His claws are pointing at your neck at every turn!"

When he said that, I looked at his orb.

For a moment, I noticed a strange eye looking at me, from the eye a black aura came out and covered the sphere, an inhuman body with wings, claws, horns and fangs began to form.

It was smiling at me, it seemed to want to stretch its hand towards my neck as the old man said.

Then, the crystal ball cracked and I ran for my life.

The girls were behind me calling out to me.

Thank you, now I'm afraid of a hallucination.

◇◇◇

When Rudel ran out.

The village chief was still talking weird things as he fell to the ground.

"Huge pillars of light will rise up destroying the islands!"

"The sky will split into fragments and the moon will fall on us!"

"Round black body and a great red eye!"

"The demon lord and his vassals already walk among us!"

Above the tent where he stood, among the leaves of the palm-trees. There stood a strange yellow-eyed creature watching everything.